Except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section, no person may conduct an extended over-water operation unless the airplane is equipped with at least two independent long-range navigation systems and at least two independent long-range communication systems necessary under normal operating conditions to fulfill the following functions—

Communicate with at least one appropriate station from any point on the route;

Receive meteorological information from any point on the route by either of two independent communication systems. One of the communication systems used to comply with this paragraph may be used to comply with paragraphs (a)(1) and (a)(3) of this section; and

At least one of the communication systems must have two-way voice communication capability.

No certificate holder conducting a flag or supplemental operation or a domestic operation within the State of Alaska may conduct an operation without the equipment specified in paragraph (a) of this section, if the Administrator finds that equipment to be necessary for search and rescue operations because of the nature of the terrain to be flown over.

Notwithstanding the requirements of paragraph (a) of this section, installation and use of a single LRNS and a single LRCS may be authorized by the Administrator and approved in the certificate holder's operations specifications for operations and routes in certain geographic areas. The following are among the operational factors the Administrator may consider in granting an authorization:

The ability of the flightcrew to navigate the airplane along the route within the degree of accuracy required for ATC,

The length of the route being flown, and

The duration of the very high frequency communications gap.